Jimmy Carr admits he ‘didn’t like his life’ during heartbreaking Alison Hammond interview

Jimmy Carr stars in episode two of Alison’s Hammond’s Big Weekend (Picture: BBC Studios)

Jimmy Carr has admitted in an emotional BBC interview with Alison Hammond that he ‘didn’t like [his] life’ before his comedy career.

The TV host and funnyman, 52, is set to appear on the second episode of Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend, a new series hosted by the TV legend.

In each instalment, the This Morning presenter spends a ‘big weekend’ with a different celebrity – the first episode saw her sharing time with Perrie Edwards.

Now, in Friday’s second episode, it’s the turn of controversial comedian and quiz show host Jimmy Carr – prepare yourself for lots of iconic, signature laughter.

As well as talking about fatherhood and treating Alison to one of his comedy gigs, Jimmy also opened up about his mental health struggles during the 1990s.

‘I was a bit depressed in my mid-20s,’ he told the Bake Off host. ‘I didn’t like my life, I didn’t like where it was going. I left everything to become a comedian to tell jokes above a pub.’

Alison says her mum ‘would have loved’ Jimmy’s comedy (Picture: BBC Studios)

Offering supportive words, Alison replied: ‘My mother would have loved you. She was larger than life in every sense. She was very funny in a way that I’m not.’

Reflecting on his own late mum, Nora, Jimmy revealed that she sadly died of pancreatitis when he was only 28, shortly before falling out with his father.

He told Alison: ‘I was very close to my mother, so her dying was the worst thing I could imagine. When I was a kid, I had this separation anxiety of something happening to her.

‘I didn’t like where it was going. I left everything to become a comedian to tell jokes above a pub.’ (Picture: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty)

‘When it happens, there’s a weird freedom, where that’s happened and I’m still here. It got across to me what mortality really is. This is it, this is your life, you don’t get another go, so do what you want to do.’

He then said that his mum’s own sadness inspired him to start telling jokes: ‘She was depressed for a lot of my childhood… Making her happy made me happy, so the compulsion to be funny came from that.

‘I don’t believe in an afterlife,’ he continued. ‘But I carry her with me. There is an after life – the kids are the afterlife.’

Speaking in his 2021 autobiography, titled Before & Laughter, Jimmy admitted that he often drank to deal with his problems during the dark times.

Jimmy opened up to Alison about his mental health struggles in his 20s (Picture: BBC Studios)

‘I’d go crazy at the weekend. Looking back, I realise it was ‘problem drinking’. The amount was never the problem, it was the reason behind it. Why was drinking the thing I looked forward to doing?’

He continued: ‘After [starting comedy], for the first 12 years of my career, I didn’t drink at all. There’s no great ‘rock bottom’ story — I just wasn’t getting out of my head because, for the first time, I actually liked being in my head.’

Around the same time, he confessed that he hasn’t spoken to his dad since the pair fell out in the year 2000, shortly before his mum Nora’s death, aged 57.

Speaking about dad Patrick, Jimmy said: ‘It’s not a secret, I haven’t seen my dad in 21 years and you know the line, “My mother’s dead and my father’s dead to me” – which sounds very cold, until you meet the guy.’

Watch Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend on BBC One, 8.30pm on Friday.

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